Apple's Lightning dock connector has been catching a lot of static since it was officially announced alongside the iPhone 5. On the plus side, the Lightning connector is much smaller than the older 30-pin connector, which allows Apple to cram more components inside the iPhone 5 while making it smaller and lighter. And unlike the older 30-pin connector, the connector is reversible, making it easier to plug in the cable on the first try.

Now, Guy Kawasaki, who worked as Apple’s software/hardware “evangelist” from 1983 to 1987, is calling out the company on its decision to go forward with Lightning. Kawasaki doesn't take issue with the elimination of the 30-pin dock connector, but he does take object to Apple not going with the industry standard micro USB connector that all other smartphone makers use.

"This connector thing, I think it's pure arrogance," said Kawasaki. "Well, if the goal was really to save space why didn't you just go to a micro USB like everybody else in the world, and we could all get a cable at 7-11 for $5.

Apple's $29 Lightning adapter

"But no, you had to have a proprietary one. It fries my brain, I don't understand it. It's just arrogance and I'm disappointed very much in that."

To add insult to injury, the former Apple evangelist doesn't even own an iPhone anymore. "I got rid of my iPhone about a year ago - I prefer Android," Kawasaki added.

He's obviously not a very good technician if he can't work out why microUSB is limited and wouldn't have worked for Apple.

Even Samsung managed to work out that microUSB wasn't good enough, implementing a custom 11-pin MHL connector for the SG3 which broke compatibility with every single MHL accessory before it, whilst claiming that the SG3 supports MHL. Technically, because MHL specification doesn't include the connector - they are right, but what they did was just as bad - and just as necessary as what Apple did for the same reasons - bandwidth, redundancy, multiple device / data stream. Of course, Apples is also bidirectional.

Seems they may have had good reason to get shot of him if the basics elude him.

Samsung still tried to retain as much USB interoperability as they could. MHL is a pretty niche thing at the moment (few people use it, and even fewer will ever need more than one HDMI adapter), unlike USB (for input devices, audio, charging, etc).

Apple could have done the same thing, and in fact, if they did from the beginning, any enhancements that they made to USB OTG would have defined the standard due to their market leading position.

Personally I would want a phone with a couple micro USB ports and that's it. If you break one, doesn't matter you can charge the phone from another. :)Bandwidth won't be an issue if the USB 3 adoption picked up either.

But what I don't want is for us to go back to the days where every phone had a different charger, different data cable etc'.That was a nightmare.

"He's obviously not a very good technician if he can't work out why microUSB is limited and wouldn't have worked for Apple."

Technically there isn't any limitation to micro-USB, USB seems to meet every single purpose on the PC market... even earplugs could be made to work on USB with a simple switch that would chance the digital pins into analog ones. The fact is this new connector like every other proprietary connector are a choice based on anything but technical reasons.